Kathleen Kern To Speak In Chapel Nov. 3

Nov. 2, 2004

by Kim Skinner, Student Newswriter

Baylor University will welcome Kathleen Kern as the guest speaker at the 10 and 11 a.m. Chapel services Wednesday, Nov. 3, at Waco Hall.

Kern works with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a Chicago-based organization that "provides organizational support to persons committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality or is supported by public policy." She has served in Haiti, Washington, D.C., the West Bank, Chiapas, South Dakota, Columbia and Hebron.

The New York resident has published two books: When It Hurts to Live: Devotions for Difficult Times and We Are the Pharisees, a book that explores how Christians have used Jesus' teaching about the Pharisees to justify persecution of Jews over the centuries. She has also written a satirical novel, Where Such Unmaking Reigns, based on her experiences in Hebron. This novel won the 2003 PeaceWriting Award from the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology.

Kern is an avid writer and has had essays appear in Tikkun magazine, The Baltimore Sun and The Mennonite. Her article, "Against the System: Civil Disobedience and the Biblical Record" won in the "Theological Reflection" category of the 1999 Associated Church Press awards. She writes regularly for the Mennonite Church and is currently writing a history of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

For more information about CPT, visit www.cpt.org . For more information about Chapel, visit www.baylor.edu/um .